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Saturday, February 18, 2006
1,500 missing, feared dead in So. Leyte tragedy
CEBU CITY -- When a mild tremor shook St. Bernard town in Southern Leyte at 10:36 a.m. Friday, Steven Garvez of Barangay Tambis I did not get scared. Like other town residents, he was used to the occasional mild quake.
Nine minutes later, Garvez heard what he thought was a helicopter and looked at the mountain that towered over three barangays.
"And then I heard a roaring sound, and I saw the sides of the mountain collapse, covering the village at its foot," Garvez said.
Within seconds, all of Barangay Guinsaogon was buried in mud, and even from three kilometers away, Garvez said the devastation was visible.
"My son and I couldn't see anything, except for the roofs and the tops of coconut trees. Everything was buried," he told radio dyLA in Cebuano.
Garvez's family narrowly escaped the tragedy. His wife, a former teacher in the Guinsaogon Elementary School, was promoted as head teacher of another barangay's school earlier this month.
The Guinsaogon school now lies under 18 to 30 feet of mud and rocks.
As of 4 p.m., five bodies were brought to the St. Bernard Municipal Hall for identification and 34 injured were moved to the Anahawan District Hospital.
Eva Peraza, a midwife, said military choppers kept coming in, carrying the dead and injured people from Guinsaogon.
The first footage from the devastated village showed a sea of mud covering what had been a lush valley of farmlands.
Only a few sheets of tin roofing and the occasional coconut tree remained visible, little comfort for the tiny groups of mud-spattered survivors who appeared stunned by the scope of the destruction.
The mountainside was stripped of all vegetation.
"The rescuers are having trouble getting people out of the area because the soil is soft and we are having trouble retrieving the bodies," said civil defense director Adriano Fuego.
Rain continued to fall on the area, chilling the rescuers and slowing down their efforts further.
Rescuers worked until nightfall, trying to reach the elementary school with nearly 250 children and adults buried inside.
The only two schoolchildren to escape had been sent out on an errand by their father, Southern Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias told ABS-CBN television.
Among the people feared dead were local workers who were celebrating the anniversary of a health program at the school auditorium.
Redgie Cabug-os, a nurse, said she was still waiting to see if her sister-in-law, a nurse at the buried school, might still be found alive.
Cabug-os said she was one of the first to rush to the scene after the landslide but could see nothing.
"We are still hoping," she said, even as she conceded that when viewed from a distance, "you would say there are no survivors."
"We are just consoling ourselves. We might see tomorrow, there may be more people rescued," she said. (AIV of Sun.Star Cebu/With AFP, AP)
(February 18, 2006 issue)
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